Pretreatment assessment of pulmonary function: recent predictive studies using respiratory function tests

Abstract

The standard guidelines for operability for pneumonectomy were established in 1975 by Olsen, Block et al. [5], following their report of 56 patients with impaired lung function who were accepted for surgery if the preoperative FEV, was z 2 1 or the predicted postoperative FEV, was > 0.8 1. If these criteria were not met, then invasive studies involving temporary unilateral pulmonary artery occlusion (TUPAO) were advocated to exclude pulmonary hypertension and arterial hypoxemia prior to attempting lung resection.